Originally published on the CGS blog on October 24, 2007.
I was reading this important post from Riverbend blog on the Iraqi refugee crisis – 1.5 million Iraqis are refugees in Syria and they need help from the international community. The end of the post needs to be reflected on (although I would encourage you to read it all):
“We live in an apartment building where two other Iraqis are renting. The people in the floor above us are a Christian family from northern Iraq who got chased out of their village by Peshmerga and the family on our floor is a Kurdish family who lost their home in Baghdad to militias and were waiting for immigration to Sweden or Switzerland or some such European refugee haven. The first evening we arrived, exhausted, dragging suitcases behind us, morale a little bit bruised, the Kurdish family sent over their representative – a 9 year old boy missing two front teeth, holding a lopsided cake, “We’re Abu Mohammed’s house- across from you- mama says if you need anything, just ask- this is our number. Abu Dalia’s family live upstairs, this is their number. We’re all Iraqi too… Welcome to the building.” I cried that night because for the first time in a long time, so far away from home, I felt the unity that had been stolen from us in 2003.”
